Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-09-03
CHEAP PRODUCTION MAKES
CHEAP PRODUCERS.
Even Employers Become Cheap-The
Economical Riddle-lts SOlu.
tiOn by Karl Marx-Mr.
Georges Oversight.
Land Titles.
BY DR.. A. DOUAI.

III IS one OF the lie laws OF Capl-
talstc production to produce as
cheaply as possible. The cheaper
the product the greater will be the
demand for it in the worlds market,
the reader the sale, the more rapid
the conversion of money into wares,
and Of wares into money-a process
which, repeated many times within
the space Of year, will render the
capital invested more fruitful of in
terest than when it is returned only
once or twice in the year at a high
rate of interest.
This law Of cheapness does, of
course, not apply to merchandise,
such as in demand with rich folks
of fastidious taste who will buy what
is dearest and rarest simply to shine
before the world with their riches.
But the law holds good Of all the COM
mon merchandise, such as enters
into the most Indispensable wants Of
mankind.
Now it is not to be denied that up
to a certain degree cheapness will
benefit mankind at large. Even the
richest men hail it with delight if
they can buy the labor of workmen
and goods, such as they need, at a
cheap rate. And even the poorest
persons like to see things which
they need and affect at low prices
which they can afford to pay.
But after a certain degree of
cheapness of most wares has been
reached it ceases to be beneficial.
The men and women engaged in the
production of cheap merchandise
will turn out cheap themselves. The
manufacturer sees that it is to his
interest to cheaper the cost of pro-
duction, one item of which, and not
the smallest, are of course wages.
Wages, it is true, is not the sole cost
of probationary materials and
auxiliary materials and other items
may indeed far overbalance the
wages account of the manufacturer.
Yet all these things consist to such
an extent of wages and profits en-
bodied in the raw materials so as to
render the saying nearly correct that
all the self-cost or outlay of the
manufacturer or employer ultimate
ly may be considered to consist of
wages. And this is not merely a
socialistic view, but the common
teaching of political economy.
Thus it is evident that cheap pro-
duction must ultimately mean cheap
workers. All the savings in produc-
tion which manufacturer or en-
ployer may realalize must, in the
end, be curtailments of wages of
workers. The cheaper most mer-
chandize the cheaper, therefore,
must workers become 1t may be
that even employers themselves be-
come very cheap, realize hardly more
profits than any of their workers re-
ceive in wages. Only the largest
producers will in the end be left to
monopolize production.
But not all kinds of wares turn
out cheaper and cheaper under tie
capitalistic mode of production.
There are some kinds which become
always dearer as long as that mode
of production prevails. Such are
land and its rents, and such is
money capital. So long, at least. as
the working population increases,
these three things will continue to
rise in value of exchange. 1t is the
same with the costlier kinds of food,
like meat and animal products.
Thus it is with the budget of
workers as it is with a candle that is
kindled and wasted at both ends.
Their income from wages is-unless
they are excellently organized-al-
ways on the wsne, but their wants